Monday, July 11, 2005

You see, Hatfield had reports of what was being done...but many of those displaced will go to their home villages, where there is little food, due to the poor rains and no harvest. So they will die. They will die of HIV (untreated) but mainly from "famine" disease, like diarrhea/cholera. Or minor wounds. You see, when there is no rain, the local water supplies are far (no running water, but two miles away, you go to a mudhole to get water) and dirty, so you die of diarrhea. Your nutrition is lousy, so you die of minor infections (colds become pneumonia, cuts lead to sepsis) and don't forget that major killer: Tuberculosis...babies are especially suseptible...but adults will die also, but will not be counted as "famine deaths" since they didn't die of starvation (This is nothing new...in the Irish potato famine, one million died of hunger, but hundreds 0f thousands died of cholera or on the "coffin ships" and often are not counted among the dead...and contributing to the death rate was the fact that those not paying rent had their houses torn down, so many died of exposure).

So the headlines "Five killed in Hatfield" are not the problem.

And unless these clergy bother to go beyond the Potempkin villages, they won't see the deaths either.